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Maid-to-order surrogate mums

MUMBAI: Over a year ago, during the frenzy surrounding the success of Slumdog Millionaire at the Oscars, a reed-thin Nafisa was nursing her infant in the slums of Garib Nagar, Bandra. Mother and child were the picture of poverty, skin stretched taut over bones, for they were barely able to fill their stomachs on most days.

Sitting under a plastic sheet, Nafisa watched as her neighbour, child actor Azhar, shifted to a pucca house gifted by Mhada. She saw little Rubina decline two free houses, demanding nothing less than an apartment in Pali Hill. When the Behrampada shanties caught fire, the...